He put his hands around her waist, making her stomach drop.

“Are you sure?” Rose asked. She needed more than just a physical assurance.

“Rose, my life has improved since you moved in with me. The fridge used to look like a war zone, but now you make sure I eat all my vegetables,” he joked.

“I bet she just wants me out so she can move in,” Rose couldn’t help saying.

“As if.” Tyler snorted, and the goofy sound made Rose happier than she’d been all morning.

She beamed at him, looking him straight in the eyes. Tyler stared back with a strange intensity, and suddenly, Rose’s smile disappeared. He leaned in closer, slowly, and her breath caught in her throat in anticipation.

Four

Georgiana

A few miles away, in another posh neighborhood of Boston, Georgiana paced around her living room. As she circled the couch, she was seething with hatred for Rose, anger for Tyler, and resentment for Marcus. Whom she didn’t exactly know, but who she was positively sure had ruined her life by moving to LA.

She tried Tyler’s number again. When he didn’t pick up, she threw her phone across the room and let out a growl. The phone hit an armchair and bounced off its soft cushions, landing on the carpeted floor.

This wasn’t going to work. Another woman living with Tyler wasn’t right. How could he not see it? What was his house, a stupid co-ed? A charity? Georgiana didn’t know for sure, but since Rose and Tyler came from the same rich neighborhood in Dallas, she doubted Rose had money problems. She was just a parasite. Tyler’s best friend was poison ivy, and she was sprouting roots in his house.

Why wasn’t he picking up his damn phone?

Georgiana checked the time on her Rolex: 9:45 already. She’d been calling him for almost an hour now. Bracing her arms on the back of the couch, Georgiana stared out of her floor-to-ceiling windows without focusing on anything in particular. Maybe his phone was switched to silent and he hadn’t heard it ring. What if Tyler was still asleep? It wasn’t unusual for him to sleep late on weekends, and they’d been arguing until the small hours last night. Tyler had left her apartment at—three, four a.m.? By the time he’d gotten home and to bed, it must’ve been late.

That was it, she decided, Tyler was still sleeping. Nothing to worry about. Yeah, they had a row, and he’d taken Rose’s side, again, but it would pass. It always did.

Georgiana’s nervous fingers tightened their grip on the soft cushions fabric. Men! They could sleep through everything. Unlike her. She’d barely slept and had been forced to use all of her willpower not to call him before nine—Georgiana didn’t want to come off as the hysterical girlfriend.

Anyway, Tyler asleep or not, the problem remained. Georgiana needed to weed the poisonous bitch out of her boyfriend’s place. The sneaky little ho was after her man. She’d probably been since puberty. Why did Marcus have to dump Rose and give her the perfect excuse to move in with Tyler? To feed off his generosity and good nature?